Peter Preston on press and broadcasting + Advertising | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/series/peter-preston-on-press-and-broadcasting+advertising
Indexen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2016Fri, 09 Dec 2016 17:32:59 GMT2016-12-09T17:32:59Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2016The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Radio is on the up, but not every station gets a good receptionhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/07/radio-up-not-very-station-good-reception-rajars
The latest Rajar figures are impressive overall, but they throw the failure of some broadcasters into sharp relief<p>The trouble with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/04/bbc-radio-4-today-lbc-ratings-brexit-6-music-radio-1" title="">good news about radio listening</a> is that bad news (as also recorded by Rajar, the industry’s chosen monitor) can’t altogether be scoffed away. Good news from the latest Rajar survey: overall UK listening figures over a week, up to 48.7&nbsp;million: Radio 4 reach up 8% year-on-year to 11.5 million: Five Live bounding 10% to 5.86 million: <em>Today</em> show audiences at a new peak of 7.3&nbsp;million. (Thank you, Brexit). So radio itself is in “incredibly rude health”, according to Helen Boaden, its chief at the BBC: and radio news does particularly well when there’s pulsating news around. LBC has been performing brilliantly, too.</p><p>What are we supposed to make of the weaker sisters though? Radio 1, down 9.4%. Well, that could be politically motivated listeners switching to 4 – except that Radio 2, with well over 15 million, is 1% up. And local radio is a very mixed bag. Radio Leicester, down 21.4%; Radio Wiltshire, down 23.7%; Radio Stoke and Radio Northampton, down 16.8% and 17% respectively. Radio Wales, down 18.4%, and Radio Cymru, down 11.2%, make it a pretty bleak reporting period in the principality.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/07/radio-up-not-very-station-good-reception-rajars">Continue reading...</a>RajarsRadio industryAdvertisingHonours systemPoliticsMediaNewspapers & magazinesTelevision industrySun, 07 Aug 2016 06:00:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/07/radio-up-not-very-station-good-reception-rajarsPhotograph: Mark Allen/BBC/PAPhotograph: Mark Allen/BBC/PAPeter Preston2016-08-07T06:00:08ZPrint still has a future, and Le Monde can prove it. Aux armes, citoyens!https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/31/print-still-has-a-future-le-monde-aux-armes
Gloomy advertising figures point to a bleak future for newspapers, but the revival of one Parisian heavyweight offers a way forward<p>Set aside this summer’s No&nbsp;10 pulsations for a while and look at the noisy press gang on the other side of Downing Street. In particular, note how two heavyweight reports – one British, one American – have just sung the same grim song about newspaper futures.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/24/brexit-good-for-broadsheet-newspapers">So Brexit is good for one thing – the broadsheets</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/31/print-still-has-a-future-le-monde-aux-armes">Continue reading...</a>NewspapersNewspapers & magazinesMediaLe MondeFranceGuardian Media GroupMedia businessAdvertisingThe EconomistMagazinesSun, 31 Jul 2016 06:00:27 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/31/print-still-has-a-future-le-monde-aux-armesPhotograph: Laurent Cipriani/APPhotograph: Laurent Cipriani/APPeter Preston2016-07-31T06:00:27ZCharging money to go ad-free? The New York Times meets the BBChttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/26/new-york-times-bbc-ad-blocking-charging-money-ad-free
Former corporation man Mark Thompson has hit on a new, yet strikingly familiar, formula for revenues in the digital age<p>You can see why big newspaper managers – say <a href="http://adage.com/article/media/york-times-exploring-ad-free-digital-subscription/304322/" title="">Mark Thompson at the <em>New York Times</em></a> – grow indignant when “cynical”, “money-grasping” adblocking businesses demand money from papers in return for leaving their ads unblocked. That’s “unsavoury” with a <em>Godfather</em> twist. But brows may furrow a little when Thompson tells conference audiences that he’s preparing to sell readers a “higher-tier” ad-free digital package himself.</p><p>“We do want to offer all of our users as much choice as we can, and we recognise that there are some users – both subscribers and non-subscribers – who would prefer to have an ad-free experience.” Which would seem to mean that, if you pay us more, we’ll block the ads for you ourselves.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/26/new-york-times-bbc-ad-blocking-charging-money-ad-free">Continue reading...</a>New York TimesAdblockingMark ThompsonBBCUS press and publishingNewspapersMediaAdvertisingDigital mediaNewspapers & magazinesSun, 26 Jun 2016 06:00:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/26/new-york-times-bbc-ad-blocking-charging-money-ad-freePhotograph: Remy de la Mauviniere/ASSOCIATED PRESSPhotograph: Remy de la Mauviniere/ASSOCIATED PRESSPeter Preston2016-06-26T06:00:06ZAdvertising’s promised land has become a digital deserthttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/29/advertising-promised-land-digital-desert-online-ad-reveues
Print ad revenues were already tailing away. But the Daily Mail’s latest results are an ominous signal that online is fading too<p>The <em>Daily Mail</em> belongs to a proper public company that gives regular briefings to its shareholders. So quarter by quarter and year by year you can see pretty transparently what’s going on – especially in the misty area where print publishing declines as digital reach bounds forward. But there aren’t many bounds in the <em>Mail’s</em> results for the year end to September. On the contrary…</p><p>We were told to expect £80m in digital revenues. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/25/mail-online-misses-80m-revenue-target" title="">In fact only £73m transpired.</a> Hopes of £100m next year duly expire. Some 41% growth last year has slowed to 18% – and, though that sounds good by most standards, it is also signals a grinding halt to vaulting expectation. <em>Mail</em> print and circulation revenues fell away (down 12% for print ads in the last six months). Digital&nbsp;growth couldn’t cover that. The coming year, says the group chief executive, “largely depends on the print advertising environment balanced against further growth in digital areas”. Life on a seesaw.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/29/advertising-promised-land-digital-desert-online-ad-reveues">Continue reading...</a>AdvertisingMail OnlineDaily Mail & General TrustDaily MailMedia businessNewspapersNewspapers & magazinesNational newspapersDigital mediaInternetMediaSun, 29 Nov 2015 07:59:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/29/advertising-promised-land-digital-desert-online-ad-reveuesPhotograph: GuardianPhotograph: GuardianPeter Preston2015-11-29T07:59:02ZNewspapers go on the hunt for a safe place to payhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/01/newspapers-hunt-safe-place-paywalls-new-york-times-martin-sorrell
The New York Times is going all-out for new subscribers as print ads fall away. It’s a costly bet, but some answer has to be found to the revenues conundrum<p>When the oracle of Mayfair speaks, editors take notice. “Paywalls are the way to go,” proclaims Sir Martin Sorrell, ad agency master of the universe. Newspaper execs far and wide pause to ponder. Will their future be ruled by subscriptions, limited access, cash online before information? Or can it be free and open, a digital world without boundaries that relies on ad revenues? The difficulty here is that if the great guru of advertising doesn’t think ads can fill the bill, the case for free creaks a bit – even when <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/jul/08/the-sun-lowers-its-paywall-allowing-free-access-to-many-stories" title="">Rupert Murdoch flips the other way and frees the <em>DigiBun</em></a>.</p><p>What Sorrell doesn’t say, of course, is that the frailty he foresees is, in part at least, the fault of a <em>Mad Men</em> business model that talks of global billings – $46.2bn for his WPP last year – but needs the umbrella structure of a holding company to operate, with 3,000 offices in 112 countries.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/01/newspapers-hunt-safe-place-paywalls-new-york-times-martin-sorrell">Continue reading...</a>Digital mediaPaywallsNew York TimesUS press and publishingNewspapersAdvertisingNewspapers & magazinesMediaSun, 01 Nov 2015 09:00:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/01/newspapers-hunt-safe-place-paywalls-new-york-times-martin-sorrellPhotograph: Ramin Talaie/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Ramin Talaie/Getty ImagesPeter Preston2015-11-01T09:00:04ZEclipse looms for newspaper giants buying a place in the digital sunhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/04/eclipse-threatens-newspaper-giants-buying-digital-rivals
<p>Ad blockers are wreaking havoc with the online revenue of newspapers, yet some groups continue to throw money around to acquire online rivals. What happens when boom turns to bust?</p><p>On the one hand, the bad times are rolling for news on screens. Ad blocking is knocking a hole in revenue streams – billions of dollars lost globally, according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, which reckons that 48% of American digital ad cash is at risk already.</p><p>More than that, Facebook and the social mob are becoming a news hub of their own for hundreds of millions of (often young) users – potentially eclipsing the value of discrete news websites. One damned thing as well as another.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/04/eclipse-threatens-newspaper-giants-buying-digital-rivals">Continue reading...</a>Digital mediaAdvertisingMediaAxel SpringerNewspapersNewspapers & magazinesTechnology sectorTechnology startupsTechnologySun, 04 Oct 2015 08:04:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/04/eclipse-threatens-newspaper-giants-buying-digital-rivalsPhotograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesBuzzFeed was valued at an eye-watering £1bn. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesBuzzFeed was valued at an eye-watering £1bn. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesPeter Preston2015-10-04T08:04:10ZGreat things can happen when newspapers stop hating each otherhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/06/newspaper-ad-campaign-cooperation-bbc
And the same could happen if the BBC and the press could come together on news resources, rather than snarling from their individual sides<p>So Fleet Street titles all get together and spend <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/31/national-newspaper-rivals-launch-3m-campaign-to-fight-ad-slump" title="">£3m on adverts</a> stating that what they do – the campaigns they mount, the investigations they launch, the causes they champion – is and remains a vital part of the news ecology. What, no sniping? No <em>Mail</em> against <em>Mirror</em>, no <em>Telegraph</em> against <em>Guardian</em>? Just a united message saying that what they do and how they do it matters.</p><p>Perhaps that selfsame message might find a way into the jungle where newspapermen and BBC broadcasters jostle and snarl. Here, fresh last week, is a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/02/bbc-digital-news-operation-must-be-curbed-say-newspaper-publishers" title="">report from consultants Oliver &amp; Ohlbaum on the future of news</a>, one commissioned and paid for by the newspaper industry, and surely designed to blast the BBC’s own Future of News ambitions out of the water. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/15/bbc-local-press-newspapers" title="">Local and regional newspapers in particular believe the BBC website </a>and its expansionist strategies have greatly damaged them.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/06/newspaper-ad-campaign-cooperation-bbc">Continue reading...</a>NewspapersNewspapers & magazinesBBCTelevision industryNational newspapersAdvertisingMediaSun, 06 Sep 2015 08:00:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/06/newspaper-ad-campaign-cooperation-bbcPhotograph: PRPhotograph: PRPeter Preston2015-09-06T08:00:03ZAs summer dwindles, print revenues enter a long, cool autumnhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/23/advertising-glorious-summer-passes-print-by-newspapers
One sobering new study suggests print revenues will outgross digital for many years to come – even as newsprint sales steadily decline<p>Two expert reports – one taking the long view, the other dripping blood on the carpet – define the problems newspapers face as summer fades. The long view comes from Ovum in London, making a five-year forecast for digital consumer publishing. How fares the media world of transition and upheaval? What price print world as – among other things – its pit bulls savage the BBC? One crucial fact, while Tony Hall and his broadcasting legions hymn the wonders of “stability”, is that very little of that exists in the kennel where the attack dogs live.</p><p>It would be easy, very easy, to make plans and investments if the transition to digital publishing proceeded at some steady, comforting pace. Yet, Charlotte Miller from Ovum reports, “the resilience of print, despite the growth of mobile and digital consumption, may still be underestimated.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/23/advertising-glorious-summer-passes-print-by-newspapers">Continue reading...</a>AdvertisingDigital mediaNewspapersMediaNewspapers & magazinesSat, 22 Aug 2015 23:04:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/23/advertising-glorious-summer-passes-print-by-newspapersPhotograph: Action Press /RexAccording to a study of 50 international news markets, just 24% of revenues will come from digital in 2020. Photograph: Action Press /RexPhotograph: Action Press /RexAccording to a study of 50 international news markets, just 24% of revenues will come from digital in 2020. Photograph: Action Press /RexPeter Preston2015-08-22T23:04:04ZBlocking out ads is bad news for free online siteshttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/28/blocking-ads-bad-news-online-sites-news-free
With one click, viewers can delete irritating commercials - and a whole emerging model of internet financing self-destructs<p>The truth about huge, multifaceted reports on digital advance, <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Reuters%20Institute%20Digital%20News%20Report%202015_Full%20Report.pdf" title="">such as the one Reuters published last week</a>, is that they contain many often-contradictory stories wrapped into one. So Story One was the pell-mell growth of mobile use (and addiction) among people under 35. Goodbye newspapers, books, TV watching … goodbye everything. And Story Two (which <a href="http://www.cjr.org/analysis/reuters_digital_news_report.php" title="">keeps the <em>Columbia Journalism Review</em> awake at night</a>) is even more daunting.</p><p>Some 47% of American users – and 55% of those aged from 18 to 24 – are using ad-blocking software to wipe away “obtrusive, obnoxious, annoying” ads from their screens. Goodbye interruptions. You download faster and crash less. You get what you, not lurking Mad Men, want. Worse, only 11% in the US actually pay subscriptions for online news. They like to access it free – except that “free” means paid for by advertising, which has vanished without trace.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/28/blocking-ads-bad-news-online-sites-news-free">Continue reading...</a>Digital mediaAdvertisingiPhoneInternetNewspapers & magazinesMediaSun, 28 Jun 2015 08:00:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/28/blocking-ads-bad-news-online-sites-news-freePhotograph: /Bloomberg via Getty ImagesOnline news has never been 'free'; newspapers need income from advertising to pay for it. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotograph: /Bloomberg via Getty ImagesOnline news has never been 'free'; newspapers need income from advertising to pay for it. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPeter Preston2015-06-28T08:00:02ZPoverty is a hard sell for newspapers flogging braised endiveshttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/23/poverty-hard-sell-newspapers-flogging-braised-endives
Leftwing papers have to strike an uneasy balance between the lure of aspirational advertising and their mission to report<p>Margaret Sullivan, sharp-elbowed ombudsman of the <em>New York Times</em>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/opinion/sunday/pricey-doughnuts-pricier-homes-priced-out-readers.html" title="">was brooding the other day</a> over the regular <em>NYT</em> supplement they call simply “Wealth” – though she readily plonked the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> section called “Mansion” in the same high-end box. How, she wondered, do you run a newspaper flogging $10m apartments or designer knick-knacks for $160 when the median household income in America is only $52,000 a year?</p><p>It’s a question that spans the Atlantic in a trice – and, curiously enough, illuminates one of Ed Miliband’s dilemmas as it does so. For, in marketing terms, we’re talking the pitch direct against the pitch tangential.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/23/poverty-hard-sell-newspapers-flogging-braised-endives">Continue reading...</a>AdvertisingNewspapersSocial exclusionNewspapers & magazinesSocietyMediaSun, 23 Nov 2014 00:05:07 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/23/poverty-hard-sell-newspapers-flogging-braised-endivesPhotograph: Robert Alexander/Getty ImagesPapers like the New York Times have affluent readers but a socially involved news agenda. Photograph: Robert Alexander/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Robert Alexander/Getty ImagesPapers like the New York Times have affluent readers but a socially involved news agenda. Photograph: Robert Alexander/Getty ImagesPeter Preston2014-11-23T00:05:07ZPrint is not the future, but it's not the past eitherhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/apr/27/print-future-past-digital-media-newspapers
The latest US figures on newspaper decline may be sobering, but pundits and managers alike are starting to despair of digital<p>Once a year the Newspaper Association of America pulls together its overall performance figures, so once a year we can see more clearly than ever which way the US press industry (hugely influential in terms of expected British and European performance) is heading. Current answer, for 2013 as for every year since 2007: down.</p><p>Print advertising is 10% off the previous pace. You can find some upswings – in paywall and wider subscription cash, plus sponsorship and allied devices – but the bottom line is still 2.8% worse than 2012. And the statistic that arrives with an added jolt shows digital advertising, once the supposed wonder ingredient of future prosperity, stalled: in fact at the same level as it was in 2007. Put both print and digital ads together and you're talking $21bn. That's plunged from $49bn in under a decade. No light in the darkness there.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/apr/27/print-future-past-digital-media-newspapers">Continue reading...</a>Digital mediaNewspapersMagazinesPaywallsNewspapers & magazinesAdvertisingMediaSat, 26 Apr 2014 23:05:23 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/apr/27/print-future-past-digital-media-newspapersPhotograph: Akira Ono/APBottom-line figures for the US news industry declined again last year. Photograph: Akira Ono/APPhotograph: Akira Ono/APBottom-line figures for the US news industry declined again last year. Photograph: Akira Ono/APPeter Preston2014-04-26T23:05:23ZWeb advertising: still a small net in a very large pondhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/02/web-advertising-small-net-large-pond
Internet ad revenues are growing fast. But, even now, they make up only 4.5% of the global whole<p>Here, as recession ends, is a reality check on the global media ad market (courtesy of Nielsen). Revenues via the internet are up 32.4%, up 4.3% via TV and 5.1% on posters. But they're down 2.2% for newspapers and 1.1% on magazines (with radio and cinema also in negative territory). So, that's another familiar yarn about the march of the online battalions.</p><p>Step back, though, and look at the whole cake, neatly sliced. TV, at 57.6%, is the king of the jungle. But if you add newspapers and magazines together, they're a fat 28.7% against the net's 4.5% (which is outgunned by radio, too, and scarcely better than billboards).</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/02/web-advertising-small-net-large-pond">Continue reading...</a>AdvertisingDigital mediaNewspapersNewspapers & magazinesBBCMediaSun, 02 Feb 2014 00:04:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/02/web-advertising-small-net-large-pondPhotograph: Tim Clayton/CorbisGlobal revenues for web advertising are dwarfed by those for print media – and are not that far ahead those for billboards, above. Photograph: Tim Clayton/CorbisPhotograph: Tim Clayton/CorbisGlobal revenues for web advertising are dwarfed by those for print media – and are not that far ahead those for billboards, above. Photograph: Tim Clayton/CorbisPeter Preston2014-02-02T00:04:06ZAdvertisers can love an activist mediahttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/03/impartiality-activism-digital-media
The importance of balanced reporting grew up when advertisers wanted a safe canvas for mass-market ads. No longer<p>Should reporters start with blank minds in order to seem trustworthy, fair and balanced? That's the case made by Bill Keller, former executive editor of the exceedingly fair and balanced <em>New York Times</em>. Or can journalists have convictions they pursue and admit openly? Enter Glenn Greenwald, lately the main <em>Guardian</em> man on the Snowden/NSA case, off soon to excavate more sensations for the billionaire founder of eBay.</p><p>In the <em>NYT, </em>Keller says: "I believe that impartiality is a worthwhile aspiration … even if it is not perfectly achieved." But Greenwald sees a twofold mission: imparting accurate and vital information, and a "unique ability to provide a truly adversarial check on this power". The word "activist" has never been so incendiary.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/03/impartiality-activism-digital-media">Continue reading...</a>Digital mediaMediaAdvertisingThe NSA filesNewspapersNew York TimesNewspapers & magazinesNSAWorld newsSun, 03 Nov 2013 00:04:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/03/impartiality-activism-digital-mediaPhotograph: Ueslei Marcelino/ReutersGlenn Greenwald says journalism has a unique ability to provide a truly adversarial check on power. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/ReutersPhotograph: Ueslei Marcelino/ReutersGlenn Greenwald says journalism has a unique ability to provide a truly adversarial check on power. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/ReutersPeter Preston2013-11-03T00:04:03ZProfit and loss is hard, even after two digital decadeshttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/21/profit-loss-hard-digital-decades
ABC figures show the future is far from easy to predict, but recent good news gives newspapers a chance to regroup<p>School and the sun are out. It's time to take stock before the annual snooze. And here are some mid-year facts to chew on – excavated from 20 years ago, as digital futures first began to impinge on newspaper fortunes. Feel the difference – and then, weirdly, see how little difference exists.</p><p>In June 1993, according to ABC figures, the <em>Daily Telegraph</em> sold 1,012,640 copies a day; the <em>Times </em>recorded 362,428, the <em>Guardian </em>406,517, the <em>Indy </em>some 338,828 and the <em>Financial Times</em> 287,234. And last month? The <em>Telegraph</em> managed 547,106, the <em>Times </em>390,941, the <em>Guardian </em>187,000, the <em>Indy </em>73,060 and the <em>FT </em>258,488. That means, in print terms, that there are 28,513 more Thunderers rolling around Planet Earth and that the pink one has held up resiliently. But it also means <em>Guardian </em>sales have more than halved, that the <em>Telegraph </em>is in steep decline – and that the <em>Independent </em>has just a fifth of its former strength.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/21/profit-loss-hard-digital-decades">Continue reading...</a>National newspapersNewspapersDigital mediaPaywallsAdvertisingABCsNewspapers & magazinesMediaSat, 20 Jul 2013 23:03:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/21/profit-loss-hard-digital-decadesPhotograph: Frank Baron/GuardianThe Financial Times – profitable and not for sale. Photograph: Frank Baron for the GuardianPhotograph: Frank Baron/GuardianThe Financial Times – profitable and not for sale. Photograph: Frank Baron for the GuardianPeter Preston2013-07-20T23:03:03ZStop the presses at Newsweek, but the Guardian rolls onhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/21/stop-press-at-newsweek-guardian-rolls-on
As the Standard has demonstrated, there's plenty of money to be made from print advertising yet<p>The bad (as in rotten, ridiculous) news last week claimed that the <em>Guardian </em>was on the point of abandoning print and turning into an online-only non-paper paper. The good (as in obviously correct) news claimed that it isn't – and heaven knows why the <em>Daily Telegraph</em> thought this secondhand sub-tweet of gossip worth publishing. But bad news and good news have a curious way of getting mixed up in the wild, woolly world of media futures.</p><p>It isn't superficially stupid to think of great print brands operating in digital alone. That's precisely what will happen to <em>Newsweek</em> as 2012 ends. No more printing presses, only Newsweek Global on a laptop or iPad near you. But this isn't the seamless transition from past to glowing future that some apostles bathe in hope. <em>Newsweek</em>, in spite of gallant efforts to rescue its news magazine format, was sold for one dollar last time around and loses millions year after year. It can't be fixed. Any digital reincarnation (if recent experience of such tottery transitions is any guide) may have to try to operate on no more than a third of its current editorial cost base.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/21/stop-press-at-newsweek-guardian-rolls-on">Continue reading...</a>Newspaper closuresNewspapers & magazinesNewspapersMediaLondon Evening StandardRegional & local newspapersAdvertisingSat, 20 Oct 2012 23:01:15 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/21/stop-press-at-newsweek-guardian-rolls-onPhotograph: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERSNewsweek: soon to be out of print. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERSPhotograph: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERSNewsweek: soon to be out of print. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERSPeter Preston2012-10-20T23:01:15ZIndependent's i has some good news at lasthttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jan/30/newspapers-independent-i-success-comment
A TV campaign has added to the i's circulation, which is good for newspapers – and demonstrates television's enduring power<p>Here is some good news. The <em>Independent's</em> 20p mini-version – the one they called "<em>i</em>" – started feebly last autumn, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/23/independent-i-sales" title="Guardian: Sales of Independent's i continue to fall">pottering around the 70,000 sales </a>figure and threatening to fade into obscurity. A too soft, too cheese-paring launch.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jan/30/newspapers-independent-i-success-comment">Continue reading...</a>iNewspapers & magazinesMediaAdvertisingIndependent News & MediaNewspapersSun, 30 Jan 2011 00:06:46 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jan/30/newspapers-independent-i-success-commentPeter Preston2011-01-30T00:06:46ZUS newspaper publisher McClatchy sees pick up in classified adshttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/12/pressandpublishing-advertising
<p>No local paper, reading the runes and surveying the ruins, sees salvation in classified ads any longer. Those lucrative pages of jobs, services, births, deaths and oddments for sale, have shrunk for ever, it's said. The internet (and operations such as Craig's List) has stolen them away. Yet look at one of America's biggest and hitherto most beleaguered chains, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/jan/06/pressandpublishing?INTCMP=SRCH" title="Web's not yet warm enough to beat the chill">McClatchy</a>'s, as it prophesies a more buoyant future. Classified ads, its CEO says, are recovering faster than other parts of the advertising base. More than half McClatchy's job ads come via its digital editions. And online rates in this regional world, are beginning to rival print. As economies bounce back, in short, so does a support mechanism editors thought had collapsed. Result: mild happiness and modest relief, Mr Micawber.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/12/pressandpublishing-advertising">Continue reading...</a>Newspapers & magazinesMediaAdvertisingNewspapersSun, 12 Dec 2010 00:07:32 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/12/pressandpublishing-advertisingPhotograph: George Widman/APChief executive of US publisher McClatchy that owns titles such as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, says classified ads are recovering faster than other parts of its advertising base. Photograph George Widman/APPhotograph: George Widman/APChief executive of US publisher McClatchy that owns titles such as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, says classified ads are recovering faster than other parts of its advertising base. Photograph George Widman/APPeter Preston2010-12-12T00:07:32ZITV should be free of ad regulation burdenhttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/nov/07/itv-advertising-regulation-burden
If the British TV industry is to thrive, why continue to lumber ITV with the millstone of its outdated advertising rules?<p>ITV's new ruling duo, Adam Crozier and Archie Norman, were up before a House of Lords committee last week complaining about the "ratings rat-race" inflicted by Contract Rights Renewal – a leftover bit of regulation that means ITV has to pay advertisers back if it doesn't hit its promised audience targets.</p><p>We're stuck with aiming for the lowest common denominator, said Archie and Adam. Our original programming is badly down, to 49%. And in a multi-multi-multi-channel age, it just doesn't make sense to pretend we're the biggest beast in the jungle; on the contrary, we're just trying to keep up with the pack.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/nov/07/itv-advertising-regulation-burden">Continue reading...</a>ITV plcTelevision industryAdvertisingMediaITVBusinessSun, 07 Nov 2010 00:06:24 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/nov/07/itv-advertising-regulation-burdenPhotograph: Public domainITV: complaining about ratings rat-race induced by ad regulations.Photograph: Public domainITV: complaining about ratings rat-race induced by ad regulations.Peter Preston2010-11-07T00:06:24ZOnline ads still don't pack a fraction of print's punchhttps://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/sep/05/preston-online-advertising
Two new reports suggest that online ads still don't pay like paper-and-ink ones<p>You can have opinion (and hope, and aspiration) or you can have facts. Benedict Evans, at Enders Analysis, has just trawled through all the data of newspaper finances present and future – and he has concluded that one current print reader is worth four times as much as any prospective online website reader.</p><p>Even when you've killed all the forests and lugged them around the country, the old combination of cover price and advertising revenue comes out on top, it seems. Put up a paywall, as the <em>Times</em> has done, and subscription money (with concomitant advertising decline) fills only a quarter of the gap. And if you forget paywalls and concentrate on advertising alone, the gap is just as big, if not even bigger.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/sep/05/preston-online-advertising">Continue reading...</a>AdvertisingMediaiPhoneiPadSat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:36 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/sep/05/preston-online-advertisingPhotograph: Kimberly White/REUTERSHow much impact does an ad seen on an iPad have? Photograph: Kimberly White/REUTERSPhotograph: Kimberly White/REUTERSHow much impact does an ad seen on an iPad have? Photograph: Kimberly White/REUTERSPeter Preston2010-09-04T23:06:36ZAxed public-sector job ads push newspapers towards double diphttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/jul/11/public-sector-job-ads-newspapers
Government cuts called for by the press are hitting close to home, as newspapers feel pain from axed advertising<p>Most of the press wanted cuts and pain. So bang – for starters – goes a £75m Department of Health ad campaign against obesity. And bang goes a swathe of public service job ads which Eric Pickles, the local government secretary, says must go (far more cheaply) online.</p><p>HMG is Britain's biggest advertiser. Local papers, battling to survive, get 75% of their revenue from ads. So the pain without prospect of gain is great, and mounting. The French (and, to some extent, the Americans) steer ads towards print. They help ensure survival. But that's namby-pamby stuff in a coalition world, not to mention what looks like the first double-dip industry in the land of hard times.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/jul/11/public-sector-job-ads-newspapers">Continue reading...</a>Newspapers & magazinesAdvertisingNewspapersMediaPublic sector cutsSocietyPublic financeSat, 10 Jul 2010 23:01:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/jul/11/public-sector-job-ads-newspapersPeter Preston2010-07-10T23:01:05Z